1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to communications and more particularly to managing resources utilizing wireless communications.
2. Description of Related Art
Communication systems are known to support wireless and wire lined communications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices. Such communication systems range from national and/or international cellular telephone systems to the Internet to point-to-point in-home wireless networks to radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. Each type of communication system is constructed, and hence operates, in accordance with one or more communication standards. For instance, wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one or more standards including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15.4, Bluetooth, global system for mobile communications (GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), long term evolution (LTE), IEEE 802.16, evolution data optimized (EV-DO), and/or variations thereof.
Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wireless communication device, such as a cellular telephone, two-way radio, personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptop computer, home entertainment equipment, RFID reader, RFID tag, et cetera communicates directly or indirectly with other wireless communication devices. For direct communications (also known as point-to-point communications), the participating wireless communication devices tune their receivers and transmitters to the same channel or channels (e.g., one of the plurality of radio frequency (RF) carriers of the wireless communication system) and communicate over that channel(s). For indirect wireless communications, each wireless communication device communicates directly with an associated base station (e.g., for cellular services) and/or an associated access point (e.g., for an in-home or in-building wireless network) via an assigned channel. To complete a communication connection between the wireless communication devices, the associated base stations and/or associated access points communicate with each other directly, via a system controller, via the public switch telephone network, via the Internet, and/or via some other wide area network.
Many of the communication devices include a similar basic architecture: that being a processing core, memory, and peripheral devices. The memory stores operating instructions that the processing core uses to generate data, which may also be stored in the memory. The peripheral devices allow a user of the communication device to direct the processing core as to which programs and hence which operating instructions to execute, to enter data, etc. and to see the resulting data. For example, a cellular telephone includes a keypad, a display, a microphone and a speaker for such functions. Typically the processing core, memory and other elements of the communication device are implemented in one or more integrated circuits (IC) that are inter-coupled by traces on common printed circuit boards. The interconnections carry control and content messages between the ICs to enable the device to fulfill its function.
A typical IC includes components (e.g. transistors, capacitors, resistors, and inductors) configured to form a plurality of circuits (e.g. logic gates, flip-flops, multiplexers, amplifiers, and other circuits). Combinations of the circuits can produce modules such as a memory array, a microprocessor, and others. In a typical IC, communications between modules and/or circuits are limited due to the internal wired interconnections and communications between ICs are limited due to the external wired connections between them.
The limitations of internal IC interconnects and the IC-to-IC connections produce a silo effect of task execution (e.g., certain tasks are performed by certain circuits and/or modules of an IC). The silo effect inhibits efficient use of the device's IC resources resulting in uneven resource utilization between and within ICs. As a result, some ICs may have overloaded resources while others are under-utilized.
Therefore, a need exists for a communications mechanism that will facilitate better utilization of IC resources.